Most people know that Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the first person to win it twice. However, few people know that she was also the mother of a Nobel Prize winner.

    Born in September, 1987, Irene Curie was the first of the Curies' two daughters. Along with nine other children the parents of whom were also famous scholars, Irene studied in their own school, and her mother was one of the teachers. She finished her high school education at the College of Sévigné in Paris.

    Irene entered the University of Paris in 1914 to prepare for a degree in mathematics and physics. When World War I began, Irene went to help her mother, who was using X-ray facilities (设备) to help save the lives of wounded soldiers. Irene continued the work by developing X-ray facilities in military hospitals in France and Belgium. Her services were recognised in the form of a Military's Medal by the French government.

    In 1918, Irene became her mother's assistant at the Curie Institute. In December 1924, Frederic Joliot joined the Institute, and Irene taught him the techniques required for his work. They soon fell in love and were married in 1926. Their daughter Helene was born in 1927 and their son Pierre five years later.

    Like her mother, Irene combined family and career. Like her mother, Irene was awarded a Nobel Prize, along with her husband, in 1935. Unfortunately, also like her mother, she developed leukemia because of her work with radioactivity (辐射能). Irene Joliot-Curie died from leukemia on March 17, 1956.

Visiting Joshua Tree National Park, California

    Joshua Tree National Park is nearly 800,000 acres (英亩) large and surrounds parts of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts in South-central California. Although barren at first sight, the park is full of wildlife and provides a variety of entertainment activities from hiking to climbing. Within a three-hour drive, Joshua Tree National Park takes at least a full day to visit.

Things to do

    Hiking opportunities within the park include several choices, from 12 self-guided nature routines to all-day back-country hikes.

    Joshua Tree NP has nine camping grounds, and back-country camping is also allowed.

    Rock climbing is a popular activity in the park, which has 10 mountains greater than 5, 000 feet in height.

When to visit

    Joshua Tree NP is open 365 days a year, although the best time to visit is October through April, when temperature is milder. The peak season is when the wild flowers bloom, and the summer months are the least crowded.

What to bring

    In addition to your camera and telescope, be sure to carry lots of water. Park and guiding maps can be picked up at any of the three visitor centers.

Fees

    Parking fees: You can buy a seven-day vehicle permit (周票) for $ 15, a single entry permit for $ 5, or Joshua Tree National Park annual (每年的) pass for $ 60.

Camping fees: They vary by camping ground

    When I was a boy, I was always happy to see those little brown coins. After years I was still very happy to pick up pennies on the ground, I usually saved them up. I usually bought a pack of gum or a bag or chips when it was enough. After growing up, I hears a story about coins. It was said that our loved people sometimes would leave pennies on the ground in front of us. People wanted to show us that we were loved and watched over kindly. I never doubted that story even as an adult. It is difficult for me to find a lot of money on the ground, but pennies are there all the time. Maybe that is why I still enjoy seeing them and picking them up, no matter how dirty or old they are.

A few months ago, I was walking to the local post office to mail a letter. As I entered the room, I saw not one, not two, but four pennies shining in the sunlight. I smiled and picked them up. I kept them in my hands as I walked in the post office. "Four is Ok," an office said to a lady. The lady began searching her purse. Her face went red. I understood what had happened. I laughed to myself at this surprising moment. I placed my pennies on the desk before her. The smile I got in return was worth a thousand dollars.

    The coins weren't so valuable to me, but they did matter to her. I just performed a little kindness. I was happy.

    I am sorry that I haven't written this letter before now. It has taken me three years to gather the courage. I have started it so many times in my head, but was afraid that you would think it disrespectful of me to write to you. It does seem strange writing to someone I have never met, but part of me feels that I know you very, very well.

    We read your file one morning in September. We knew the contents would be difficult. Later that afternoon, we received the call from our social worker to tell us that you had passed away. Suddenly, we knew what we had to do.

    There was never any doubt. All I remember was a desire to protect this little boy, to give him the love and care he deserved. And really that was that; as far as we were concerned, David was now our son. There were further meetings, questions, paperwork, decisions, arrangements and preparations. Then, two months later, we met him for the first time. I hope the fact that I call him “our son” does not offend you. Sarah, you will always be his birth mother. But I make no apology in referring to him as our son.

    For the past three years, we have loved and cared for David. We have dealt with his anger, his confusion and his anxieties. David was taken away from you soon after his second birthday. I cannot imagine the pain that must have caused you. We know that you really wanted to be a good mother to David, but you could not cope when his father left.

    It is tragic that your life ended so early. I don't know how I will explain all these things to David as he grows up, or how he will explain his story and what happened to him during his early years. I hope that it does not cast a shadow over his life as his understanding deepens. I hope you can find comfort in the fact that, from all this pain, Sarah, you have given us the most wonderful gift – an amazing little boy who is completely fearless.

    It is so unfair that you did not receive the love and the warmth in your childhood that David now takes for granted. And although you never chose to hand your beautiful baby over, I can only feel gratitude towards you for this wonderful little boy who has made our lives complete.

    A nine-year-old kid was sitting at his desk when suddenly there was a puddle（水潭、泥坑） between his feet and the front of his trousers was wet. He thought his heart was going to stop because he couldn't possibly imagine how this had happened. It had never happened before, and he knew that when the boys found out he would never hear the end of it. When the girls found out, they would never speak to him again as long as he lived.

    He prayed this prayer, "Dear God, I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat!" He looked up from his prayer and here came the teacher with a look in her eyes that said he had been discovered. As the teacher was walking toward him, a classmate named Susie was carrying a goldfish bowl full of water. Susie tripped （绊倒） in front of the teacher and dumped （倒） the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretended to be angry, but all the while was saying to himself, "Thank you. Lord!"

    Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy was the object of sympathy. The teacher rushed him downstairs and gave him gym shorts to put on while his trousers dried out. All the other children were on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy was wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his had been transferred （转移） to someone else+—Susie. She tried to help, but they told her to get out.

    When school was over, the boy walked over to Susie and whispered, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Susie whispered back, "I wet my trousers once, too!"

    At first glance Esther Okade seems like a normal 10-year-old. She loves dressing up, playing with Barbie dolls and going to the park or shopping. But what makes the British-Nigerian youngster stand out is the fact that she's also a university undergraduate.

    Esther, from Walsall, an industrial town in the UK's West Midlands region, is one of the country's youngest college freshmen. The talented 10-year-old enrolled at the Open University, a UK-based distance learning college, in January and is already top of the class, having recently scored 100% in a recent exam.

    "It's so interesting. It has the type of maths I love. It's real maths-theories, complex numbers, all that type of stuff," she smiles. "I want to finish the course in two years. Then I'm going to do my PhD in financial maths when I'm 13. I want to have my own bank by the time I'm 15 because I like numbers and I like people and banking is a great way to help people." she adds.

    Esther has always jumped ahead of her peers. She sat her first Math GSCE exam, a British high school qualification, at Ounsdale High School in Wolverhampton at just six, where she received a C-grade. A year later, she got the A-grade she wanted. Then last year she scored a B-grade when she sat the Math A-level exam.

    Not content with breaking barriers to attend college at just 10 years old, Esther is also writing a series of math workbooks for children called "Yummy Yummy Algebra."

    "It starts at a beginner level-that's volume one. But then there will be volume two, and volume three, and then volume four. As long as you can add or subtract, you'll be able to do it. I want to show other children they are special." she says.